He said: "I spoke to Perry, and he asked me to play bass, as he'd heard about New Order splitting up. Well yeah, me and Bernard (Sumner) aren't working together."

On the split, he added: "Bernard went off for a break with Electronic, but that was different. But it's like the boy who cried wolf this time."

What's most interesting about this is that "New Order aren't working together" - a statement on a par for news value with 'Timothy Whites isn't on British High Streets' or 'Thatcher hasn't issued a statement about the local election results' - is still about sixty thousand times more fascinating than anything about Perry Farrell's Satellite Party super-ish group.